Observations and limits...

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the globe after another GREAT DAY in the Lion City (see, T-Rowe - I'm back to form). So first off, ANNOUNCEMENT - there will be NO BLOG until Monday, 14 March. Why, you ask? Because Team Taylor (armed with a new passport - I'M LEGAL AGAIN, BABY!!!!) is takin' their show back on the road again for a weekend away. OSC and Megs, all I'm sayin' is that tomorrow we'll be ON A BOAT, SHORTAAAAAAH headin' to Batam, Indonesia! And best of all, we're are bloody MILLIONAIRES. $158 USD bought us 1.6 million Indonesia Rupiah. And in case you're curious on that conversion rate, it's just under 800 TO 1. Yeah, much like Iceland, we're pretty much gonna have NO IDEA what anything costs. Oh well, details. The solution is always simple - order 2 more beers.

So tonight was a milestone for Sammy the Bull (as it was for Muffin Puffin, who logged over 1.5 miles in the pool in well under an hour!). Tonight I logged 10 miles outside, which is the longest distance I've run in 1 go since March 29, 2009, when I ran the Knoxville Covenant Health 1/2 Marathon (incidentally, I'm faaaaaaaairly confident - OSC, that was a little Dave Thompson for you - that I got my stress fracture from this race, althought I didn't actually feel it until May when running past Fizzy on Trade Street). It took 1 hour and 26 minutes on the nose, and I'm a) very satisfied with the effort and b) bloody EXHAUSTED. I realize this post will probably only be of interest to MattPa and my family, but here are my observations after my first true training run in the Sing.

1. Salt tablets DO make a huge difference. Granted, I am sure some of it is psychological, but there's no question those minerals and salts help. I only took 1 on this run, but next time I'll take a second one for the 1:05:00 mark, as it would have definitely given me fuel for another mile at least.

2. Even if I do continue to improve my conditioning, I am firmly of the opinion that you simply CANNOT do a half marathon in this heat without augmentation. Tonight I had a salt tablet, a packet of Goo (watermelon flavored, for the record), and 32 ounces of fluid (8 Gatorade, the rest water). I used a fuel belt for the first time EVER tonight, and I gotta tell ya - it was ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

3. The good news is that I felt strong. The better news is that I never felt close to overheating and my pulse was good. The best news was that, at about 8.5-9 miles, the old mental attitude kicked in and I felt stronger and knew I could go at least another mile on heart. That being said, I really doubt that I could have finished 13.1 running the whole time tonight. But hey, the race is still 2.5 miles away, and the pace tonight was about 8:40, which I can't complain about given the heat (and it was actually fairly cool tonight).

All in all, I was very pleased, and I KNOW that I'll sleep good tonight (knock on wood). We are SO excited about a weekend away, and it's time to go pack!

Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print. Chat Monday!

Love,

Sam and Jenny